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The Week 1 Standard Winners [Best Decklists]

This past weekend showcased the first major Standard tournament of the Amonkhet season, and for the first time, Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian weren’t in attendance. While there was diversity in the metagame (32 different archetypes going into day 2) there were clear winners and losers after the dust had settled.

After the Felidar Guardian ban, this was the most obvious deck to go to. Even though we’re in an entirely new Standard format, Mardu Vehicles is still top dog. It’s hard to combat the sheer power level of this deck – 3/2s for 1, 4/4s with flying and vigilance for 2, and of course, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. There’s a lot of room to explore this format, but with Copycat combo out the door and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar still around, this may just be the most powerful deck in the format (at least pre-Pro Tour). Not to say that’s the worst thing ever, Mardu is still beatable and people are always going to be playing a variety of different decks, so even if there is one dominant deck there’s still a lot of room to try new things in this format – Felidar Guardian put too much constriction on what you could actually be doing.

This deck hasn’t changed all that much since last format. We have two new card additions – Cut//Ribbons and Canyon Slough. Cut acts not only as a way to clear creatures early on, but a nice game-ender if the games go longer. With 28 decks making it into Day 2 of the SCG Open, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mardu has a huge target on its head after this weekend going into the Pro Tour, but I’m sure a variety of different decks will appear – maybe a whole new archetype altogether!

I’m actually a little surprised by this one. With Mardu being such a big deck going into the weekend post-Copycat, B/G Delirium wouldn’t be my first choice to bring to this tournament, especially the Delirium strategy over a Winding Constrictor one. The deck has a lot of utility and again a powerful quality of cards, which was what put 14 copies into day 2. Ishkanah, Grafwidow combined with a bevy of removal spells may be enough to stop Mardu in its tracks.

Although I’m not a fan of this type of strategy (I’d rather not be playing 3 mana 2/3s) I think this deck has some reach against the other decks in the format. Cryptbreaker is the powerhouse of this deck – cheap, efficient and effective of staying ahead on cards. This was the only zombies strategy that appeared in the top 16, with a few others popping up in the top 64. I’m not convinced Zombies is the best strategy to play, but I think it’s resilient and hasa lot of recurring threats such as Dread Wanderer, Relentless Dead, and Scrapheap Scrounger.

I’m also not a fan of control strategies in this Standard format, since I think there are more cheaper and powerful things you can be doing with your mana, but I think the right build of U/R or Jeskai can prove to be a contender if it has a favorable Mardu matchup. Torrential Gearhulk is still busted and now control strategies have new tools to play with such as Magma Spray for dealing with Scrapheap Scrounger and Sweltering Suns which can help against aggressive draws or cycle in matchups where the 3 damage isn’t relevant. I still think these decks can run out of steam, but maybe with Pull From Tomorrow they can have a resurgence.

Although Mardu made up the majority of the top 8, there still were a multitude of archetypes that advanced to day 2. Mardu still seems to be the most powerful deck, but I don’t think it’s unbeatable by any means. Even if there’s one dominant deck, it’s unlikely you’ll be playing against it every single round at whatever event you attend, but you do have to keep it on your radar and prepare for the worst. With the Pro Tour coming up soon I’m excited to see what teams stay on the Mardu strategy or come up with somethingentirely new that shakes up the metagame.